Letter To Fans Forum Members – Something Has To Happen

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

2:24pm Sunday, April 26th, 2015

Commented 354 times

The Fans Forum took the initiative last week and sent an open letter to Lee Charnley and asked three specific questions, and in response the Newcastle Managing Director Lee Charnley has sent a letter to members and he will bring the next Fans Forum meeting forward, but no date has been mentioned – but it will be before the end of the season.

Lee Charnley – brought forward Fans Forum meeting With our seventh defeat in a row yesterday when the team seemed to collapse in the second half after looking fairly good in the first half, the likelihood of Newcastle getting pulled into the relegation fight has become all too real, and we will be dependent now on what other sides below us do in the league – if we continue to lose games and cannot help ourselves.

And that’s always a very bad situation to be in with only four games to go.

This is the letter sent to Fans Forum members:

“In order to discuss the issues you raise, I intend to bring forward the date of our next Fans Forum meeting which was originally scheduled for the end of the season.

“I am sure Forum members past and present will agree that the Club has been open and transparent during all interactions, including meetings and correspondence, and this next meeting will be no different.”

“In my opinion, the introduction of the Forum has been productive for all the parties involved and, as we move forward, the Forum will continue to be one of our preferred forms of fan communication and engagement.”

“With five games now remaining of the season – including three at St. James’ Park, I would ask you, indeed all supporters, to get fully behind John Carver and the players as they look to finish the season as strongly as possible.”

“When St. James’ Park is loud and supportive of the team on the pitch, it does make a huge difference.” “We accept mistakes have been made and understand you raise these issues because you want the best for your football club.”

“Please be assured we want the same – we want to give you a football club you can be proud of and a team you feel passionate to support.”

That last line is kind of hard to take given what Lee Charnley and Mike Ashley did in January.

It’s almost getting to the point where Newcastle have to do something soon – rather than just hoping we can get one win in our last four games.

The last time we were relegated we didn’t think we would go down either, but we also kept losing games and that 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on the last day of the transfer window stunned Newcastle fans around the world.

We’d like to see the Fans Forum meeting held this week – and Lee Charnley has to again admit openly to big mistakes being made in January, and then try to bring everybody together for the final four games of the season, in an effort to save the club from relegation.

Forget just for one moment about Mike Ashley and trying to get him out of the club – that can be picked up again at the end of the season – we’d try to being everybody together just so we can survive in the Premier League.

Lee Charnley could also hold a press conference and take questions from the media during this coming week.

Forget the fact he doesn’t like doing it – that’s what’s needed – and the sooner the better – and Newcastle are now almost in a disaster recovery situation as both a business and a football club.

But it may be too late to do much now – since the powers that be at the club have allowed things to stagnate and fall apart over the last two months – and have shown no initiative, communication or good management to alleviate the situation.

Newcastle have lost every single game in March and April – and not a word was said from above.

And when you’ve lost seven games in a row it becomes enormously difficult to stop that losing trend, as players find ways to lose games – as we did yesterday.

Newcastle could also think seriously about bringing in an experienced coach this week to help John Carver manage the last four games of the season – but that may also not happen.

If Newcastle do nothing, it only increases the danger of the club going down – which is what we are primarily concerned about right now.

And remember that Newcastle will be a lot easier to sell this summer of we are still a Premier League club.

354 comments so far

Another arms length ‘smoke and mirrors’ communication from Charnley…. He’s shit frightened of facing any ‘one to one,’ unrehearsed, un-orchestrated questioning. An over promoted slimeball always hiding behind a press release. Get him out HWTF

What’s Charnley going to say if the Fans Forum urge Charnley to appoint an experienced respected manager to take charge for the last four games of the season? Clearly he’s not going to listen. The reason we’re in this mess is because of the club’s arrogance in not listening to the fans. Carver has lost the plot. He cannot organise or motivate the players. I have never seen worse displays for years than under Carver. And he’s swearing at fans.

“A) The club’s view on the boycott of thousands of fans at the weekend. What plans do the owners and operators of NUFC have to correct the current plight that we find ourselves in?

“B) The reason why Jonas Gutierrez was left out of the squad. Despite Jonas stating that he was not injured, it was clear that Jonas was one of very few players that could be described as giving his all at the recent derby loss. Was the omission connected, in any way, to a comment he made on social media?

“C) As the players appear to be playing without any leadership and discipline (Sissoko/Collocini/Cisse bans) what is the plan going forward in relation to the head coach role? At our recent meeting, Lee Charnley stated that: ‘We asked John to look after the team for the remainder of the season and told him to make sure that we had a decision to make’. There appears to be several sources stating that they believe that John Carver will be head coach next season. Can you confirm that those ‘rumours’ are 100% inaccurate?”

Just answer the questions. Time is of high importance.

6 days to say we’ll move forward the next fans forum (with no mention of to when) which was scheduled in 4 games time anyway?

We’ve got the worst squad of players in the premier league, most budget players with resale in mind. Sad thing far too many over rate them and blamed Pards and now Carver. In fact we’d struggle in the championship. Whats the point of getting behind a regime and players who don’t care about the fans? What a mess, not to mention a disgrace!

Charnley needs to act but he doesn’t realise it. Even if he did, he wouldn’t know what to do. Lets bring forward the Fans Forum meeting. Is that his best effort?

Surely if Graham Carr is the Director of Football it is he who should be making these statements and leading the discussion with fans? But he’s not. Charnley is the so called Director of Football and Carr’s credentials as a football person are being used as a cloak for the scam.

The Fans Forum should be asking to speak to the Director of Football. That should be interesting.

Lee, You can answer these q.s and I’m glad you share the fans’ goals and ambitions. By the time that meeting happens, there should be a temporary HC in. It’s not about finishing as strongly as possible anymore. That would be ‘nice’, but now it’s a lot more serious. It’s about the ‘R’ word man. JC ain’t walking. Explain to him about the shattered record (7L) and that …….. will be in charge for the rest of the games.

Who agrees with this? We’re 5 points above 3rd bottom and 12 up for grabs

Assuming we get ZERO points from our last four, here’s the minimum points needed for at least FOUR teams to put us 18th:

Aston villa – 3pts from four games Hull – 4pts from five games Leicester – 4pts from five games Sunderland – 6pts from five games (assuming their GD remains worse than ours)

It looks like they have plenty of points to pick up, but lets be real, all FOUR of these clubs have picked up less than a point per game for the whole season! Aston Villa are the only club who will probably leap frog us as they have an inspirational manager. Leicester’s run could keep going so lets say they leap frog us too.

That means Hull and Sunderland basically need two wins each from five games. 6 points would be a better than usual return from 5 games for all of these teams so I just don’t see it happening. And lets be honest, are Newcastle really going to make history with an ELEVEN game losing run??? Unless Carver is match fixing I seriously doubt it! We will at least draw one of our last four and that’s as good as us winning the premier league for the teams below us.

Dear Mr Charnley, Under the current circumstances surrounding Newcastle United Football club it would be of no surprise to me that you are engaging a support team in your office to monitor related Social Media activity. Should this be the case may I take this opportunity to invite you to my home one evening before next Saturday where we can perhaps chat over a cup of tea about the challenges our dear club find themselves facing from different perspectives. This – I am sure you will agree – would personally give you a golden opportunity to dispel any preconceived ideas some of us have of recent matters whilst at the same time going some way to introducing a vital level of individual open-ness, trust and transparency. This I feel would only serve to increase your personal standing in the eyes of supporters everywhere. I’m a seventy year old pensioner and I won’t bite you. You can get my contact details from the host of this website. Yours sincerely, Mecannylad.

When is Charnley and Co going to get behind the team by way of investment?

And Ed…..can you at least pretend to sit on the fence for a while please, rather than alienate half your posters by lecturing them about how they shouldn’t be protesting? The term biting the hand that feeds you springs to mind.

“With five games now remaining of the season – including three at St. James’ Park, I would ask you, indeed all supporters, to get fully behind John Carver and the players as they look to finish the season as strongly as possible.”

Charnley: “Please be assured we want the same – we want to give you a football club you can be proud of and a team you feel passionate to support.”

That’s a lie. The FA should probe the owner of the club preferably with a pitch fork. These people are not fit for purpose and are bringing the game into disrepute, not that the FA give FA about that.

Ashley, Chanley and Carver sounds like a firm of Undertakers and they might as well be as they’ve killed the club

And just exactly where is Ashley – in an underground bunker or somewhere up a drainpipe ? The press don’t even follow him to ask questions or take photos which they do of every other useless celeb that walks the planet. Useless the lot of them.

Mint That team gave up and went on their holidays weeks ago. If you recall, there was a brouhaha about which suitcase Carver had packed the flip flops. What makes you think they’re going to come back now?

What so many Don’t realise is MA actually owns the fans as well as the club, they’ll accept anything he throws at them, not until the last couple of weeks have a number of fans decided enough is enough. The rest still dance on a string like the dodgy staff.

Blackley Charnley and co will have cack handed structure to follow, but MA will always make every final decision. you can bet he cares more than you think, not about the football, but the money. He’s a business man, who likes a gamble.

they’ve had our support all season. it’s obvious to a blind man these players aren’t interested, they apparently have little to no respct for carver and a lot of them have probably got their agents engineering moves away.

i can live with going down if ash went. surviving in the pemiership and appointing someone as hit and miss as mclaren doesn’t fill me with joy.

until these people finally exit stage left does it really matter what league we’re in.

Jesper – it’s on Channel 4 at 8.00pm tomorrow night (UK Time) I do believe that Denmark is on the Central European Time Zone compared to the UK which is on the Greenwich Mean Time Zone. In other words your are 1 hour ahead of us. So in Denmark it should be transmitted at 9.00pm. (plus a few minutes transmission delay). Best way to check today is to check out a couple of listings from a C4 programme guide such as :-http://www.channel4.com/tv-listings

Check the times a programme starts from the guide (UK time) and have the stream running so you can see how this compares when a programme starts with your time zone. Basically do a dummy run in preparation.

“Graham Carr, it has emerged, is the power broker behind the scenes at St James’ Park. Anyone who thinks that he is merely chief scout must reside in a cave up the Northumberland coast and never venture forth into the daylight.”

John Gibson. I hope you read this blog. You should give your head a shake. “…reside in a cave up the Northumberland coast and never venture forth into the daylight”, indeed. Even old Blackley’s glass eye can see that Charnley is the Director of Football using Carr’s credentials.

If Carr is the Director of Football, he should be sacked for the complete balls up of this season. As chief scout, he should hang his head in shame for his recruitment activities in the last 12 months alone.

And you John Gibson should do your job as a journalist and bring this club to account. Anyone who thinks you’re not a lazy journalist conniving with the club must reside in a cave up the Northumberland coast and never venture forth into the daylight.

Dont forget u ever so loyal season ticket holders with four games left u need to organise an open top bus for your ever so loyal players for just avoiding relegation and dont forget to applaud for there lap of honour

Agree its Scum / Hull we are looking at to scrabble over the line ahead of. But its silly season – flip flops being primed for use and funny results can be had when the opposition are downing tools for the summer (if nowt to play for). Hull are in bother, playing Liverpool who are stuttering and can go either way at present, same for Tottenham game. Can’t really see em beating Arsenal but they are at home…all I’m saying is anything can happen in games this time of year. We are in free fall, defence as shaky as a hummingbirds wing and we usually struggle to score. Come in Mr Cisse.. Sissok will breeze back, disinterested get another sending off and ban so not relying on him..

health update

My latest checkup was yesteday and after a battery of tests the results show the cancer remains stabilized and has not spread further.

Some background - I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 after being in remission for six years. and I completed four months of intense chemotherapy in late July.

The cancer metastasized through the bones and one treatment available I am undergoing is hormone treatment.

There is no cure for Stage 4 cancer and I will continue to have exhaustive blood tests about every three months and CAT-scans and bone-scans when necessary.

I will do my best under the circumstances and I take this as another challenge - a big one.

Ed Harrison

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